NATIVE AMERICANS 7 from Conquest to Tribal Survival in a Postindustrial Society
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NATIVE AMERICANS 7 From Conquest to Tribal Survival in a Postindustrial Society distribute or post, LOC Newscom 1838 1876 Approximately 17,000copy, Cherokee are forcibly removed Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse from North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama (Lakota) defeat George to the Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma, along Custer at the Battle of the the 1,200-mile “Trail of Tears.” Some 4,000 to 8,000 Little Bighorn. Cherokeenot die during the removal process. 1830 1845 1860 1875 1890 1905 1920 Do 1887 1830 1871 The Dawes Act allows government to The Indian Removal Act The Indian divide Indian land into individually 1890 leads to the deportation of Appropriations Act of About 300 Sioux are owned parcels in an attempt to 100,000 Native Americans 1871 dissolves the killed at Wounded Knee 1886 establish private ownership of Indian to west of the Mississippi. status of tribes as Apache leader in last battle between lands. sovereign nations. Geronimo surrenders U.S. troops and Native 1851 to U.S. troops. Americans. The Indian Appropriations Act 1862 of 1851 allocates funds to move The Homestead tribes onto reservations. Act essentially LOC allows Americans to settle on Indian land. LOC LOC Copyright ©2019 by SAGE Publications, Inc. Wikimedia Commons This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Lorinda announced that the [Blessing By the end of this chapter, you will be able to do the following: Way ceremony for Lynette’s unborn 7.1 Explain the changing population characteristics and common child] was about to start . [so cultural characteristics of Native Americans and Alaska Natives. we] walked into the hoghan. A 7.2 Summarize and explain the changing relationship between Native single light bulb lit the room dimly. Americans and the U.S. federal government, especially the changes in laws and policies and their effects, and the dynamics of Indian Couches, futon mattresses, and large resistance and protest. pillows were set against the walls 7.3 Understand the most critical issues and trends that have influenced for the night’s sing. A coffee-maker, relations between Native Americans and the larger U.S. society in microwave, and crock-pot sat on a recent decades, including folding table against the northern a. struggles over natural resources, b. attempts to bring jobs to reservations, wall for the midnight eating. This c. broken treaties, was the same Navajo adaptation I’d d. gaming, and grown up seeing, the age-old ritual e. prejudice and discrimination. with modern technology. 7.4 Analyze the contemporary relations between Native Americans and The hataałii [shaman or healer] sat whites using the concepts of prejudice, discrimination, assimilation, and pluralism, especially in terms of against the western wall. He a. acculturation, wore thick silver bracelets and a distribute b. secondary structural assimilation, and silk bandana across his brow, the c. primary structural assimilation. knot tied off at his right temple 7.5 Assess the overall situationor of Native Americans today based on the in traditional style. A basket of concepts and information presented in this chapter. tádídíín[corn pollen] sat at his left. post, Wikipedia 1924 1968 1988 Federal law grants The American Indian Federal legislation legalizes all Native Americans copy,Movement, an advocacy reservation gambling. 2005 citizenship. group, is founded. The National Collegiate Athletic Association bans use of “hostile and abusive” American Indian mascots in not postseason tournaments. 1935 1950 1965 1980 1995 2010 2020 Do 1978 2012 The American Indian Movement Revenue 2016–2017 1934 1972 Thousands protest leads the Longest Walk, a from The Indian Reorganization The American Indian the Dakota Access spiritual walk across the country gaming on Act decreases federal Movement sponsors the Pipeline. for tribal sovereignty and to reservations control of Indian affairs Trail of Broken Treaties, protest anti-Indian legislation. reaches a cross-country protest and re-establishes self- almost $28 presenting a 20-point governance for many billion. tribes. list of demands from the federal government. Getty LOC LOC Copyright ©2019 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. [There were] gifts: . a stethoscope, that the baby would diverse Indian1 nations fought to preserve their cultures and have good health and might be a healer; . a pair of to keep their land (see Chapter 4 for a review). The tribes running shoes, that the child would be a strong runner; had enough power to win many battles, but they eventually lost all of the wars. Nichols (1986, p. 128) suggests that the dollar bills . to wish the child a wealthy life; cowboy diversity of Native communities (including 250 different boots and work gloves so that the child would be a hard languages) contributed to the challenges of fighting whites worker. (Regan, 2018, p. 239). The superior resources of the bur- geoning white society made the eventual defeat of Native The hataałii spoke in quiet Navajo as he passed the basket Americans almost inescapable (Diamond, 1998). of tádídíín to Dennis, who sprinkled the yellow pollen at By 1890, the last of the tribes had been conquered, each corner of the hoghan, first East, South, West, then their leaders had been killed or were in custody, and their North. Then he passed the basket around the room in a people were living on U.S. government-controlled reser- clockwise order; when it came to me, I did what the others vations. By the start of the 20th century, Native Americans had done: I placed a pinch inside my lower lip, pressed a were, in Blauner’s (1972) terms, a conquered and colonized second pinch to my forehead, then spread the pollen in minority group. Like African Americans on slave planta- tions, Native people living on reservations were subjected the air above in a small arch to resemble the rainbow that to live, by law, under a paternalistic system controlled by promises life and beauty. federally mandated regulations. Because the reservation The hataałii began the sing. Brandon and the two system destroyed tribal governments, most lived under the supervision of U.S. appointed Indian agents who tempo- burly men entered the chant with accenting rhythms rarily lived on the reservations and who supervised their as articulate as wind chimes, but with the resonance of acculturation into U.S. society in detail, for example, by distant thunder. governing everything includingdistribute hair length, clothing, and Lorinda leaned forward and rocked slowly, speaking her language (Nichols, 1986, p. 135). For almost 150 years, as Jim Crow segregation, Supreme Court decisions, indus- own prayer: I heard the word hózhó sung many times. or trialization, and urbanization shaped the status of other There is no English equivalent, but mostly it means minority groups, Native Americans lived on the fringes of “beautiful harmony.” Christians might call it grace. development and change and had weaker links to the larger —Jim Kristofic (2011, pp. 183–184) society than white ethnic groups and other minority groups. Thus, they were marginalized, relatively powerless, and iso- At the end of first grade, Jim Kristofic found himself latedpost, geographically and culturally. While other minority moving from western Pennsylvania to the Navajo groups have maintained a regular presence in the national reservation in Arizona where his mother had taken headlines, Native Americans have been generally ignored and unnoticed, except perhaps as mascots for sports teams a job as a nurse. Like many Americans, he had (e.g., Washington Redskins, Atlanta Braves) or because of little information about indigenous people before recent protests at the Standing Rock Reservation about the getting to know them. As the new boy incopy, school Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). he was initially rejected and bullied by the Navajo The last decades of the 20th century witnessed some kids. Eventually, he developed a deep respect for improvement in the status of Native Americans in general, and understanding of the “Rez,” the people, and not 1 the Navajo way of life. In the previous passage, he Columbus used the term Indian because he thought he had landed gives us a glimpse into a sacred Navajo ceremony in India. We use the term Native American—rather than American Indian—to emphasize that such people are indigenous to the area that called the Blessing Way that has been practiced for Do became the United States of America. The term Native American centuries. Can ancient traditions such as this—and also applies to other indigenous peoples of the United States (e.g., the indigenous people that practice them—survive in in Alaska) as well as Canada and Central and South America. We the modern world? • focus on people indigenous to the U.S. mainland because their expe- riences most closely parallel the other mainland groups discussed in this book. Likewise, people debate the language of tribes, nations, or communities. Different indigenous people use different terms. As with In Chapter 4, we discussed the contact period for Native other racial and ethnic groups, these labels highlight their socially Americans, which began in the earliest colonial days and constructed nature. We encourage you to learn more and decide lasted nearly 300 years. It ended with the final battles of the what seems most accurate and respectful. In “real life,” it’s best to ask Indian Wars in the late 1800s. During that time, the many, people what they like to be called instead of assuming. 226 PART III • Understanding Dominant–MinoritY Relations IN THE United STATES TodAY Copyright ©2019 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher.